Former Falcon Michael Vick No Longer Most Disliked Athlete, But Still Top 10

It’s been more than five years since Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and former Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick was sentenced to prison time for his part in a dogfighting ring, but Vick still engenders enough hatred from sports fans to earn a place on Forbes’ annual list of the 10 Most Disliked Athletes.

Interestingly enough, Vick is no. 7 on this year’s list. That’s actually quite an improvement from 2012 when he topped the list at number one.

Taking the top spot on the list this year in a “virtual dead heat” says Forbes, are Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, who made the list courtesy of his fake girlfriend, and Lance Armstrong, who recently admitted to doping in all seven of his Tour de France wins. Forbes decided to give the nod to Armstrong based on higher name recognition.

The list was compiled using public surveys from Nielsen/E-Poll. Armstrong had only a positive appeal rating of 15 percent with the public, the survey found. That low number was matched by Te’o who saw a meteoric drop in popularity.

Forbes notes that Te’o’s appeal rating went from 88 percent positive to 15 percent almost overnight after the girlfriend scandal.

Just behind Armstrong and Te’o was Tiger Woods, who the magazine says has not yet gotten beyond his highly publicized infidelity issues from a few years ago. The golfer appeals to just 19 percent of the public, according to the survey.

NFL quarterbacks Jay Cutler and Tony Romo also make the infamous list, with the Lakers’ Metta World Peace, the former Ron Artest, and teammate Kobe Bryant the only basketball players. Alex Rodriguez was the only MLB player to make the list and Nascar’s Kurt Busch was the only representative from his sport.